• An elevated night view of the illuminated Louvre Museum in Paris during France's second lockdown on November 7, 2020.
     
    Credit: Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images
     
    Miss art museums? The Louvre just put its entire art collection online
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    Written byAlaa Elassar, CNN
    There is nothing like spending a rainy afternoon at a museum, soaking in the beauty and wonder of art and history. Now the Louvre, the world's most visited museum, is letting you do that right from home.
    The French museum has released an online platform featuring all of the museum's artworks, consisting of more than 480,000 pieces, the Louvre announced Friday in a press release.
    Art lovers and researchers alike will now be able to view the entire Louvre collection online for free.
     
    The website showcases artworks from collections at the museum's eight departments, ranging from Islamic art and Renaissance sculptures to Egyptian antiquities and paintings from artists all over the world.
    "Today, the Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known," Jean-Luc Martinez, the president and director of the Louvre, said in a statement. "For the first time, anyone can access the entire collection of works from a computer or smartphone for free, whether they are on display in the museum, on loan, even long-term, or in storage."
    "The Louvre's stunning cultural heritage is all now just a click away!" he added. "I am sure that this digital content is going to further inspire people to come to the Louvre to discover the collections in person."
    Visitors can search through the museum's massive collections through simple or advanced searches, entries by curatorial department, or themed albums, the release said.
    The website has an interactive map that allows people to explore the museum and every one of its artworks room by room.
    The website will be updated regularly by museum experts as the museum's collection slowly expands, according to the release.
    Lockdown restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the Louvre in late October, leaving world-famous artworks like "Venus de Milo," "Liberty Leading the People" and the "Mona Lisa" without their usual crowds of admirers.
    While the museum is still closed to visitors, the Louvre is now undergoing long-planned renovations.